why does this post exist?

While trying to learn SSH all the use cases and what not had been covered from the client side, assuming the infrastructure was already set up, but the basic qustion of how do I run my own SSH server and how do I find my hostname to connect were hard to come by. So here's a little post for past me.

conceptual overview

The SSH protocol is divided into the server and the client. In order to connect from your local client machine to a remote machine the remote machine must be running an ssh server. you can then use the remote machine's hostname or ip address to send along the credentials of an account to the remote machine and operate a shell on the machine as the account for which you gave credentials.

SSH is not in itself a shell, merely an encrypted tunneling tool that allows you to use existing shells on a remote machine.

using the client

using the client is as simple as running the command $ ssh user@hostname to get to the remote user's login shell. If you want to know more there are plenty of articles explaining the client in more detail.

using scp

scp follows the syntax of $ scp [flags] [source] [target] the source and target have multiple syntaxes but the easiest to remember is [user@]host:[/path]

using sftp

first you establish an sftp session $ sftp [user]@[host] this will then put you inside the sftp prompt. we can then navigate the remote file system with all the typical commands such as cd or ls if we want to interact with the local system instead we prefix the command with an l for example lcd

to download a remote file we can say

sftp> get [remotefilename]
sftp> get [remotefilename] [local name]

uploading a file works the same way using the put command

once we're done we use exit or bye to close out

setting up the host

You just have to make sure that the SSH server is running. On mac this is done by navigating tosystem preferences -> sharing and checking the remote login box.

On windows you must install it from the optional features by navigating settings -> apps -> optional features then select add a feature and select openssh client and server. I would then reccomend setting ssh server to run on startup by finding the process in task manager, right clicking it and managing its properties and selecting automatic start.

Now, to find the hostname on unix systems, you can simply use the $ hostname command which will output the name of the computer on the local network. Since windows now has WSL you can do the same thing for windows machines.

what about if im not on the local network?

Well I have Tailscale set up on all my devices already so I plan to simply use that to tunnel into the local network and SSH from there. I assume there are more elegant options but for me this is the best solutions by occam's razor.